Schweitzer Goes Tropical For Final Weekend April 7-8

Haul out the grass hula skirts and locate that old sun-faded Hawaiian shirt. Snow still blankets the mountains in Idaho, but Schweitzer Mountain Resort is going tropical for their final weekend of the season.

The final weekend of the season — April 7-8 — is packed with crazy end-of-season events. In addition to skiers and snowboarders in tropical attire, the entertainment features a limbo contest, the Sandpoint High School Steel Drum Band, a treasure hunt, crafts, face painting, and yes, even a contest to eat yellow snow.

On Saturday morning, the Ponderay Rotary hosts the traditional Rubber Ducky Derby at Schweitzer. Rubber ducks are hidden throughout the village and on the slope of Prime Time run, but you must purchase a hunting license before heading out to find the ducks. A license for seven ducks costs $5. More than $4,000 in prizes await duck hunters, and included in the prizes is a season pass for next year.

The annual Downhill Dummy Derby starts with public voting for the best looking dummy. Photo courtesy of Schweitzer Mountain Resort.

On Saturday afternoon, dummies for the Downhill Dummy Derby are displayed in the village for public voting. The winning dummy in the beauty contest gets a $100 gift card, but the real action takes place on Sunday afternoon in the downhill contest where crashes win crowd applause. Another $100 gift card goes to the dummy that flies the most distance.

The annual pond skimming is such a popular event that it runs both Saturday and Sunday afternoon if conditions permit. Check out this one young skier who was brave enough to try pond skimming last spring:

Easter activities also weave through the Sunday events, and live music plays both days in Taps. The events schedule for the Tropical Daze weekend is posted online.